A British terrorist who plotted to blow up an army base and was about to be released from prison until GB News drew attention to the case will now face an entirely new Parole Board hearing.
Zahid Iqbal had been given the all-clear to be released by the Parole Board despite two experts who had monitored his progress in prison urging the panel not to free him.
Iqbal had been jailed after plotting to send a remote-controlled toy car carrying a bomb under the gates of a Territorial Army centre.
It was only when Patrick Christys highlighted the case on GB News that Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wrote to Justice Secretary David Lammy to intervene.
Lammy then asked the Parole Board to reconsider the decision and, after several weeks, it has now been decided that the case will go before an entirely new review.
New experts will now assess the case again in full and are being urged to keep Iqbal locked up inside.
Speaking to Patrick Christys on GB News, former detective and crime adviser Colin Sutton said the original decision was “another baffling decision by the Parole Board” and questioned why Iqbal was being released despite objections from those who had worked most closely with him in prison.
Sutton said: “These are the most serious offences you can commit against our society. This wasn’t a guy in his bedroom cooking something up. He arranged training, he had links with a proper terrorist and he was released early in 2021 and had to be recalled because he wasn’t complying with the conditions.
“Why do we think he’s going to comply with the conditions now?”
Iqbal and fellow plotter Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed had discussed making an improvised explosive device using instructions in an al-Qaeda manual entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom, by ‘the al-Qaeda chef’.
Covert recordings captured Iqbal suggesting that the bomb could be attached to a remote-controlled toy car and sent under a gate.
He was recorded telling Ahmed: “I was looking and drove past like the TA centre, Marsh Road. At the bottom of their gate there’s quite a big gap.”
The original decision to release him was also controversial because his prison offender manager and community offender manager had both argued that he should stay behind bars.
Sutton said: “What absolutely baffles me about this is a psychologist examines him and says yes, he can be released, but the workers at the prison, the officers there that have been with him all the time during that sentence and know so much more about what he’s like, say don’t release him. He’s too dangerous.”
It has now been revealed that two other dangerous terrorists who had links to Osama bin Laden and plotted to have British soldiers killed are due to face Parole Board hearings in the coming weeks in separate cases.
Israr Malik, who worked on a book stall with other extremists where he sought to recruit and radicalise other Muslims to kill British soldiers in Afghanistan, is due to have a parole hearing on July 7.
Malik, described in court as a “fully committed jihadi”, targeted what were believed to be vulnerable Muslims and tried to encourage them to travel to Afghanistan to “fight, kill and die”. The plot was later foiled by undercover police.
He was convicted in 2011 of two counts of soliciting to murder and preparing acts of terrorism and was handed an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of five years.
He will now go before the Parole Board, where experts will consider whether he can be safely released.
The other terrorist due to face a hearing is Rochdale-born Rangzieb Ahmed, who is due to face a new hearing in August.
Ahmed has previously been described as one of the country’s most dangerous jailed terrorists. He had links to the 7/7 bombers, was once described as Osama bin Laden’s former right-hand man, was the UK’s top al-Qaeda commander and was the first person to be charged with directing terrorism in Britain.
Manchester Crown Court heard he was responsible for setting up a terrorist cell in Manchester, and counter-terrorism chiefs were convinced an attack was imminent.
Ahmed was rejected for parole in September 2022 after officials concluded he remained too dangerous to release. He was later ordered to take part in a deradicalisation programme, and another bid for freedom was blocked in 2024 when parole chiefs again found he was still a risk to the public.
In both cases, a panel of experts will review extensive dossiers of evidence, assess the current threat and consider any progress made in prison.
They are also likely to hear evidence from specialists and officials who have been in contact with the men while in custody.
The development comes after GB News revealed the original decision to release Iqbal, despite opposition from experts who believed he should remain in prison, prompting intervention from Chris Philp and a request from David Lammy for the case to be reconsidered.
